Before and After Sunset (a Haiku)
The orange sunset
Basks within the babbling sky
Behind purple lights
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
Before and After Sunset (a Haiku)
Category: Photos
Throwback Friday, Life Is A Bittersweet Marathon (Revised)
This week’s Throwback Friday was written in December 2020, and as is my way, I have made some changes …
Life is a Bittersweet Marathon (Revised)
life is an arduous marathon
a conundrum until the finishing line
we live in the moment
yesterday has gone
and we are not in charge of tomorrow
today is a new gift to be opened
time knowingly evolves into ripples and wrinkles
openly wavering with our shuffles and muffles
life is a bittersweet marathon
moving forward without bitterness
savouring the sweetness of completing the race
I am leaving today behind
gratefully I am wiser and a day older
and fortunately, my heart beats healthily
Featured Image: A photo of a painting hanging in the waiting room at the heart specialist rooms
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
Phenomenal Anomaly
Featured Image Above: by Enrique from Pixabay
Over at Moonwashed Musings, Eugi’s Weekly Prompt is: Phenomenons … and for Weekly Prompts the Wednesday Challenge is: Coincidence …
To visit Sue & Gerry’s fabulous site, please click on >> Here
My poem “Phenomenal Anomaly” coincides with both of the “Prompts”
Phenomenal Anomaly
Every new day’s
A spectacle
This morning
The spring sunshine
Extols
My every phenomenal stride
Every living moment’s
A miracle
This afternoon
I am going to follow the sun
To my friend’s funeral
And extol
His every phenomenal stride
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
This Fence (2001)
“This Fence” is a poem I posted on my Site when I first began blogging in June/July 2017, however I originally wrote the piece back in 2001, when I was recovering from my first stroke in Sept’ 2000 … My words from 22 years ago seem be applicable today, as I start my recovery program from this week’s diabetes diagnosis…
This Fence
I am quickly nearing this fence.
An obstacle of a lifetime I see.
And from my side of this fence,
The hurdle is too high for me.
And on the other side of this fence,
There seems nowhere to land or flee.
I have arrived at this fence,
Above the pickets, just grey sky.
And on my side of this fence,
The grass is brown and dry.
On the other side of this fence,
The grass is green, but still I cry.
How am I to clear this fence,
There seems nowhere to go or get by.
This fence, all built of stones,
Breaks my spirit, and all my bones.
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
Willpower? (a Tanka)
Dear readers, especially those who frequent my site, you may have notice during the last several months, I have often mention in my poems, that I am very tired … today, after numerous blood tests and what nots, I have been officially diagnosed with “Diabetes”
Late evening, the sun sets, early morning, the sun rises again …
Willpower? (a Tanka)
“Why am I so tired?
What’s the diagnosis Doc?
You’ve diabetes!
That is not good Doc, now what?
Don’t fret, you’ve the will to cope”
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
Frankie’s Golf Course
Yesterday afternoon, we took a drive out to the Bannockburn Golf Club, (where I used to play before my last two strokes put an end to my playing days.) The course is situated inside a State Forest surrounded by native bushland, where kangaroos graze and graciously share the fairways with those ‘crazy golfers’. At the moment the Club is undertaking the huge task of installing 18 new greens. Frankie and I inspected a few of the new greens. Frankie quickly adopted the place as his own and thoroughly enjoyed the vast expanse of grass and the many trees that he was able to explore …
Frankie’s Golf Course (a Haiku)
Doggie paradise
Miles of grass and lots of trees
All a yard apart!
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
Help or Hindrance
“As a poet, sometimes we confuse ourselves, Trying to create ashes, instead of fire ” – Leonard Cohen
Over at Weekly Prompts the November Colour Challenge is: Flame … Please click on >> Here to visit their fabulous site.
My poem below, is about whether or not anyone reads or takes any notice of the “flame” within a poet’s words.
“I set out one night
When the tide was low
There were signs in the sky
But I did not know
I’d be caught in the grip
Of the undertow” – Leonard Cohen, from his poem ‘Undertow’, taken out his book “The Flame”
Help or Hindrance
There the penguin squats
So slick and smug
Point blank
He questions me
“What are you doing?
Where are you going?
What are you trying to achieve?”
Why are you crying?
“I’m timeworn and unsure”
I blandly reply to Freddie
The fidgety fairy penguin
And despairingly, I gaze
Back at Freddie
Through my teary eyes
As I continue to wonder
Are my imaginary words
A help or hindrance
“Until Eyes Hear Sound” will be available in December
Tullawalla is Available From
Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com
Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’
AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:
Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
No More Tears
On Monday morning (Sunday afternoon PDT), I attended a Writing Circle Poetry Group via Zoom with our host/convener, the gracious Ali Grimshaw >> https://flashlightbatteries.blog/online-writing-circles/ and after listening to her recite a selected piece of poetry we are then encouraged to write our own poetic response in “5 mins” … mine was a rough draft and I actually recite my poem the opposite way round to my finished one below …
No More Tears
Old Tears
How many rivers of tears must we cry
Before all the deepest wells run dry
More Tears
Nostalgic tears never stop
They just have longer dry spells
Between the heavy showers
New Tears
Uncoiled
Barbwire hooks open old wounds
Unveiled
Remembrance tears gush to the surface
Tullawalla is Available From
Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com
Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’
AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:
Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
Cinnamon Toast, is in this Week’s Coffee House Magazine
Hello dear readers and followers, I am now writing for “Coffee House Writers” magazine on a fortnightly basis, and my poem “Cinnamon Toast”, is in this week’s edition of Coffee House Writers Magazine. …
To Read my poem, please click on the link below to visit the article, at Coffee House Writers Magazine.
>> Cinnamon Toast – Coffee House Writers
Ivor Steven (c) October 2023
Throwback Friday, Words of Mine
The “Epilogue” poem “Words of Mine” from my book Tullawalla, has been revised many times since my original version, written in November 2017, and the Tullawalla version is definitely my finale piece.
Featured Image Above: An Illustration by my niece, Kerri Costello, for the ‘Epilogue’ poem, “Words of Mine” (Tullawalla, page 153)
Words of Mine (The Epilogue, in my book ‘Tullawalla’)
I’ve given you all, my humble words
I’ve given you, my hidden soul
Words trickling, through cool mountain streams
Words dripping off the frozen ashen trees
Words gliding across the icy lakes
Words of love, drowning in the memory rains
I’ve given you all, my inner self
I’ve given you, my outer grief
Words Tumbling over the embedded rocks
Words twisting along winding rivers
Words cascading down the forest waterways
Words sifting through my barren hands
I’ve given you all, my lonely heart
I’ve given you, my secret loves
Words of life, living under the vast oceans
Words of time, travelling to the stars beyond
Words flowing through happiness, and sorrow
Words of mine, destiny’s dreams of tomorrow
“Words”, A song by Hailie Andersen(France), adapted from my poem ‘Words of Mine’ … Click on the Link below Hailie’s photo to listen to the ‘Soundcloud’ Audio
https://soundcloud.com/hailie-andersen/words-acoustic-live-with-claire-l?
“Until Eyes Hear Sound” … coming out in December …
Tullawalla is Available From
Jaymah Press:https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
Ivor Steven: email, ivorrs20@gmail.com
Amazon: search via, ‘Tullawalla by Ivor Steven’
AND
Perceptions is Now Available via:
Amazon: https://amzn.asia/d/4yFHWrT
Jaymah Press: https://www.jaymahpress.com.au/
OR: email me directly for a signed copy – ivorrs20@gmail.com
Ivor Steven (c) November 2023
Ivor.Plumber/Poet 